1. Don’t count me out. I’m still president; don’t ignore me.

2. Cha-Cha is a go. Economic progress requires changes in the constitution. We’ll push.

3. we will mobilize vs.certain presidential candidates. A number of presidentiables are boneheads. We’ll work — country can’t risk any of them getting plurality.
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Now this one I like! In the absence of any official reports re Philippine situation, I am forced to use SONA figures. Now what can the opposition do about this? She has something to show but they don’t, other than so much noise and display of disunity and hidden agendas…
Hopefully the people will see through all this and decide wisely…

Yeah? What is it then? To be despised and condemned? If it’s any consolation, I think you’re doing rather well. Too well, in fact.

Let us start with facts from Philippine Bureau of Treasury. It is public record and the statistics are accessible. The national government debt doubled from 2.1 (in 2000) to 4.2 (in 2008) trillion pesos. It is a scary picture when you imagine yourself running a household and paying monthly your mortgage loan.

According to Reuters and Forbes, the government debt will reach 4.7 trillion pesos in 2010 from the 2009 programmed 4.489 trillion pesos level.

What is not told and conspicuously missing from the SONA is that the President relied heavily on both domestic and foreign borrowings to finance its increasing budget deficit. Deficit is when the government is spending more than what it can collect from taxes. The deficit is expected to widen to a record 250 billion pesos this year (2009).In addition to government spending, the government has to get additional loans to pay increasing maturing loans (burning fresh money right away) per Department of Finance.

While GMA may have embellished her accomplishments, there is no doubt that it was much, much better than during Erap’s time. The Philippine peso has been stable, the stock market has been thriving (without the brazen manipulation that Erap and cronies engaged in, a la BW), the property market is flourishing and the OFW’s continue to remit loads and loads of hard currency back home.

Of course, if Erap continues to threaten to come back, that would only backfire on everyone because it only gives GMA reason to stick around.

If the issues represented by the statistics are important to you — unemployment, jobs-created, GDP / GNP / gini
— war-versus-MOA/ad or something in the middle for Mindanao
— roads/highways/Roll-on/Roll-off, train service, airports
— call-centers/BPO’s versus job-shops/industrialization
— putting a tax on Pinoys income generated overseas (to include OFW wages as well as GMA/Ping Lacson gains from real estate)
— electricity-accessibility and electricity-rates
— safe drinking water, water-rates
— providing a naval base in Mindanao to USA or China

An action becomes to look at the next Malacanang-resident along these metrics. What do they promise? How do they promise to do what they promise?